Category: Challenge of the month

  • How being unemployed helped me to find the real me

    How being unemployed helped me to find the real me

    For years, I defined myself by my job. From blogger to content marketer. You can imagine that I went through a bit of an identity crisis when I first realised I would be unemployed for a while.

    Wanting to pursue my creative dreams, I decided to call it quits at the job that didn’t give me the fulfilment I was looking for. But for the first time in my career I didn’t have a backup plan. So unemployment it was. While I welcomed the time to properly apply for jobs, I did feel quite useless at the beginning. Like I wasn’t amounting to anything. What I didn’t realize back then is that the time off would actually help me find the real me.

    In the past, if you would ask me to describe myself, my default answer would always be my job title. In fact, I once was asked this exact question during a job interview (way before this specific job hunt). What I could tell them about me that wasn’t on my resume. I totally froze and eventually gave the most awkward answer ever (being that I’m weird, which in my defence, I am). But it begs to question: who am I without a job?

    The thing is, when you’re busy slaving away, you get too caught up in the jist of it all to even be able to define your true self. So yeah, I was my job. But being without a job, I finally understood that I am much more. Always eager to learn (yeah, even in my free time, ask me anything about my favorite bands), happy to help my friends in a pickle and always in for a laugh. That’s the real me.

    On top of that, in general, there are a lot of stereotypes when it comes to unemployment. I myself am guilty of this. Back in the summer, I thought being unemployed would be the worse thing that happened to me. That I would come off as lazy, unambitious, … The truth is, being unemployed didn’t make me less talented or hardworking. In fact, it actually gave me the chance to spend time on developing my skill set. I took up numerous courses: from French to video editing. Basically, all the things I had been wanting to improve upon for years.

    So yes, how weird it may sound: I am grateful for having been unemployed for a while. I really do think I found my true self because of it and that consequently helped me land my current job.

    I wrote this column as part of my challenge of the month for March. Want to see the other challenges of the month? Discover them all here.

  • Shooting my own headshots

    Shooting my own headshots

    As my profile pic on LinkedIn is a selfie from back in 2013, I decided it was time for new headshots and I challenged myself to make them on my own.

    In my photography course we learned how to take pictures of yourself on your own. It’s actually quite easy. First, put your camera on a tripod. Set it to AV mode and make sure the self timer is on continuous mode. Next, use a stand-in object (in my case, a mannequin) for yourself to focus on. Press the shutter button halfway to focus. Now switch over to the manual focus on your lens. Lastly, press down the shutter button and pose.

    Curious about my previous challenge of the month? In November I took on the task of redesigning my portfolio.

  • Redesigning my portfolio

    Redesigning my portfolio

    Every month I like to challenge myself with a creative assignment to up my game. This month I took on the task of redesigning my website.

    Hard to imagine, but I’ve had the same layout on my website since I launched it back in 2018. So definitely time for a change! In the past my website focused on all the projects I worked on throughout the years, but for this redesign I wanted to emphasize my own personality, as that’s what really makes me stand out from the crowd.

    I did this by adding multiple elements on my homepage. First of, I implemented an ‘about me’-section at the top of the page. Secondly, I added a block with fun facts about me. I also wanted to focus a bit more on my photography, hence why I added a gallery with some of my best work.

    Not that the job is done by any means, as I still want to update the post and page templates. So definitely check this article again to discover the new updates I did to the website.

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